Two women walk out into a rainstorm following a prayer service for LGBT families at the Washington National Cathedral on Wednesday. / Brendan Hoffman, Getty Images

by Richard Wolf and Brad Heath, USA TODAY

by Richard Wolf and Brad Heath, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court delivered a double-barreled boost to the cause of same-sex marriage from Maine to California Wednesday by acting boldly in one case and backing off in another.

Precisely a decade after it struck down all remaining state laws banning sodomy, the court declared a key section of the federal Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional on equal protection grounds. But the justices took no stand on the merits of California's ban on same-sex marriage, leaving a lower court's decision that overturned Proposition 8 as the last word.

The results, though subject to some dispute, appeared to move in one historic direction: Most gay and lesbian couples legally married in 12 states and the District of Columbia will become eligible for the federal benefits that DOMA had denied. And within a month, same-sex couples in the nation's most populous state could be exchanging wedding vows after a five-year hiatus.

The dual decisions, rendered by separate coalitions of liberal and some conservative justices, gave the high court's mixed blessing to a gay-marriage movement that has gained momentum in the past decade and now stands on the threshold of full equality.

Even those advances, however, will leave 70% of Americans from Florida to Alaska living in states without same-sex marriage rights, and the court did nothing to advance the cause of gay and lesbian couples in those 37 states.

"These decisions underscore the emergence of two Americas. In one, LGBT citizens are nearing full equality. In the other, our community lacks even the most basic protections," said Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay-rights organization. "Everywhere that injustice still prevails, we will fight for justice."

No sooner had Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court's perennial swing vote, rendered their verdicts than the wheels of justice began to turn from one coast to the other. California Gov. Jerry Brown directed the state's 58 counties to begin issuing marriage licenses once an injunction has been lifted, which could happen in 25 days. And gay rights groups put pressure on the Obama administration to extend federal marriage rights - such as tax-free health benefits and Social Security survivor benefits - to as many gay and lesbian couples as possible.

President Obama got the news while flying to Africa on Air Force One, where a cheer went up from White House staffers. He placed calls to the gay rights movement's new heroes and heroines - 84-year-old Edie Windsor, the New York lesbian widow who challenged DOMA, and two gay couples from California who challenged Proposition 8.

"The laws of our land are catching up to the fundamental truth that millions of Americans hold in our hearts," said Obama, who once opposed gay marriage. "When all Americans are treated as equal, no matter who they are or whom they love, we are all more free."

Opponents of same-sex marriage refused to take "no" for an answer. "Proposition 8 does remain the law in the state of California," said Austin Nimocks, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, noting that lawyers will continue to defend it "unless and until there is an appellate court decision from a court with jurisdiction that strikes it down."

Conservatives breathed a sigh of relief that the court did not go further.

"While we are disappointed in the Supreme Court's decision to strike down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, the court today did not impose the sweeping nationwide redefinition of natural marriage that was sought," Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said.

'A DEPRIVATION OF LIBERTY'

The court declared unconstitutional the part of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act that denied federal benefits to gays and lesbians legally married in a dozen states, from Maine to Washington, and the District of Columbia. The law applies to some 1,138 provisions in federal laws that list marital status as a factor in determining benefits, rights and privileges.

That 5-4 ruling was written by Kennedy, author of the last two major Supreme Court rulings that advanced gay rights. By offering a forceful criticism of laws that treat same-sex couples differently than others, he and the court's four liberal justices signaled that they may look more critically in the future at other such laws.

"The principal purpose and the necessary effect of this law are to demean those persons who are in a lawful same-sex marriage," Kennedy wrote. "This requires the court to hold, as it now does, that DOMA is unconstitutional as a deprivation of the liberty of the person protected by the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution."

The court's four other conservatives dissented - Justice Antonin Scalia angrily from the bench. He accused the majority of portraying opponents of same-sex marriage as bigots by sending this message: "'Hate your neighbor, or come along with us.'"

"It is one thing for a society to elect change," the court's longest-serving justice said. "It is another for a court of law to impose change by adjudging those who oppose it hostes humani generis - enemies of the human race."

In the California case, the justices ruled that Proposition 8's proponents lacked standing to challenge lower court rulings against it. The referendum passed in November 2008, blocking a California Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage that had been taken advantage of by about 18,000 couples. After losing a federal district court decision, the state stopped defending the ban.

"We have never before upheld the standing of a private party to defend the constitutionality of a state statute when state officials have chosen not to," Roberts wrote. "We decline to do so for the first time here."

That 5-4 decision, which did not address the merits of same-sex marriage, was joined by Justices Scalia, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan. Kennedy wrote the dissent, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Sonia Sotomayor.

Taken together, the rulings represent a major step forward for marriage equality and a huge setback for defenders of traditional marriage between only a man and a woman.

"After years of struggle, the U.S. Supreme Court today has made same-sex marriage a reality in California," Brown said.

'WE WON, ALL THE WAY!'

Several factors were breaking in favor of gay marriage as the justices prepared to render their verdicts:

The public increasingly is on the side of same-sex marriage, perhaps easing some justices' hesitance to get out in front of so many states. When DOMA was passed in 1996, 68% of Americans opposed gay marriage in a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll. But 53% favored gay marriage in a Gallup Poll last month, and the latest Pew Research Center survey showed 72% consider it "inevitable."

A half dozen states have legalized the practice since last fall: Maine, Maryland, Washington, Delaware, Rhode Island and Minnesota. Waiting in the wings are several others, from New Jersey to Hawaii.

The plaintiffs in the two cases arrived at the Supreme Court this year on a roll, having prevailed at federal district and appeals courts on opposite sides of the country.

As the nine justices ended their nine-month term on a customary sour note - deeply divided by their most difficult cases - gay men and lesbians coast to coast exulted.

"We won, all the way!" a hoarse and somewhat frail Windsor told a noon-time crowd of supporters at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center in Lower Manhattan, just an hour after fielding Obama's call.

For Windsor, the ruling means real money: $363,000 in federal estate taxes she paid after her spouse of two years and partner of four decades, Thea Spyer, died in 2009. Had Thea been Theo, she likes to say, the inheritance would have been tax-free. She'll get that money back.

But the court decision meant far more to Windsor and her legal team, led by Roberta Kaplan, particularly since Kennedy based it on grounds of equal protection rather than a more bloodless argument about states' rights. "It makes it a far more powerful and significant precedent," Kaplan said.

The two couples who brought the California challenge were equally ecstatic. "Today is a great day for American children and families," said Kris Perry, who intends to marry her partner, Sandy Stier. "We believed from the very beginning that the importance of this case was to send a message to the children of this country that you are just as good as everybody else no matter who you love, no matter who you're parents love."

Reaction on social media was jubilant. #DOMA and #Prop8 were trending topics on Twitter. Actor George Takei, an outspoken gay rights activist perhaps best known for his role as Sulu on TV's original Star Trek series, lauded the rulings on his Facebook page.

"Today marks a watershed moment in history," he said, "and a tremendous victory for the principle of equality."